Ars Technicast, Episode 21–Sony teases us with PS4, and we like it

What Sony left unsaid about the new console makes us want more.

Still from Knack, a PS4 exclusive title. What else will Sony reveal in the next few months?

Sony

A little bit of mystery is never a bad thing. Mystery helps us feel anticipation and adds fun to surprises.

Sony has been teasing gamers hard with the PlayStation 4, the follow-up to the Playstation 3. It’s been seven years since the release of Sony's last console, and for its PS4 reveal, the consumer electronics giant held an event in New York City that told us a lot but didn't show us as much as some wanted to see.

We know the specs of the machine and some of its social features, but what about the casing? What about the price? Sony also failed to indicate which countries will get the PS4 at launch, or when they can buy it.

In this episode of the Ars Technicast, we talk about what we want to know more about and what we think this announcement might mean for gaming on consoles and PCs. Host Senior Apple Editor Jacqui Cheng is joined by Gaming Editor Kyle Orland, Ars Contributor Casey Johnston, and Social Editor Cesar Torres.

We should also learn more about other systems like Microsoft’s follow-up to Xbox and the Ouya later this year.

What are you looking forward to? What’s your general take on where console gaming stands today? Share your opinions with us in the comments. Also, if you enjoy the Ars Technicast and you happen to subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher, please leave us a review or comment.

Promoted Comments

But they didn't really show us much. It was mostly PR talk and pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes. They didn't even have a working PS4 there to show off these new features they were bragging about.

Pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes? Which ones were those? They showed actual gameplay from Killzone 4 and Watch Dogs and supposedly the trailer for Infamous: Second Son was comprised of real-time graphics from the system. Same goes for the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo.

But they didn't really show us much. It was mostly PR talk and pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes. They didn't even have a working PS4 there to show off these new features they were bragging about.

Pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes? Which ones were those? They showed actual gameplay from Killzone 4 and Watch Dogs and supposedly the trailer for Infamous: Second Son was comprised of real-time graphics from the system. Same goes for the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo.

But they didn't really show us much. It was mostly PR talk and pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes. They didn't even have a working PS4 there to show off these new features they were bragging about.

I agree for the most part. KillZone was the only game, but I am still questioning if there was really a person player or not.. but I'll assume that yes it was game play. However, what bugs me, is that when asked if KillZone was running on a PC or PS4, the developing studio decided to keep quiet. Ubisoft admitted that the the WatchDog demo of the PS4 press conference was running on a high end PC.

What bugs me the most, is that it was all just empty promises and idea, and not substance, I hope that E3 we will see everything more in action.

But what bugged me the most in the PS4 press conference, and this is the most important part, the touchpad on the controller. It's the big elephant in the room, walking around the set, and Sony doesn't even mention a thing. What's the purpose? How will it improve my gaming experience, or provide me with an experience that is unique that the other console can't provide? Is it just for navigating the main menu of the console?

I found out that Sony did not show the Console off - i then failed to watch the entire Event. I no longer cared about any of it.

Oooooh - a modified Controller that has basically gone unchanged in 4-5 generations. It's a good stable controller shape - don't get me wrong - but I was expecting to learn something I didn't know. Really - the next gen Console to have better graphics and improved game play over the last gen - come on !!

Did they think we were expecting to not have that stuff ?

They could have simply put out a press release and skipped the lights and glitter.

But they didn't really show us much. It was mostly PR talk and pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes. They didn't even have a working PS4 there to show off these new features they were bragging about.

I agree for the most part. KillZone was the only game, but I am still questioning if there was really a person player or not.. but I'll assume that yes it was game play. However, what bugs me, is that when asked if KillZone was running on a PC or PS4, the developing studio decided to keep quiet. Ubisoft admitted that the the WatchDog demo of the PS4 press conference was running on a high end PC.

What bugs me the most, is that it was all just empty promises and idea, and not substance, I hope that E3 we will see everything more in action.

But what bugged me the most in the PS4 press conference, and this is the most important part, the touchpad on the controller. It's the big elephant in the room, walking around the set, and Sony doesn't even mention a thing. What's the purpose? How will it improve my gaming experience, or provide me with an experience that is unique that the other console can't provide? Is it just for navigating the main menu of the console?

Actually the did show off in game footage of Watch Dogs. But yeah they didn't really show off much about the PS4. It's funny how so many people here seem to remember more than what was actually showed off.

I agree for the most part. KillZone was the only game, but I am still questioning if there was really a person player or not.. but I'll assume that yes it was game play. However, what bugs me, is that when asked if KillZone was running on a PC or PS4, the developing studio decided to keep quiet. Ubisoft admitted that the the WatchDog demo of the PS4 press conference was running on a high end PC.

What people thought was pre-rendered killzone footage was played by Fallon on his show. It was very clear he was controlling it when he took the controller. I believe people worried that any of this is going to not be what the system is capable of are sorely mistaken.

It is actually common for companies to announce products with new architecture (i.e. backwards-incompatible) well in advance. Remember, the original iPhone was announce 6 months before release. The rest were incremental updates that supported all the previous software. Of course, this does not apply to appliance-style products that don't depend on third-party software. Those can be released on the same day.

I agree for the most part. KillZone was the only game, but I am still questioning if there was really a person player or not.. but I'll assume that yes it was game play. However, what bugs me, is that when asked if KillZone was running on a PC or PS4, the developing studio decided to keep quiet. Ubisoft admitted that the the WatchDog demo of the PS4 press conference was running on a high end PC.

What people thought was pre-rendered killzone footage was played by Fallon on his show. It was very clear he was controlling it when he took the controller. I believe people worried that any of this is going to not be what the system is capable of are sorely mistaken.

They showed SOME Killzone game footage but the majority of what they showed was the cinematic that lead up to the little bit of game play. But what confused me was the look of it. It looked less like a Killzone game and more like Mirror's Edge. I'm hoping what they showed us was just unfinished. They also showed us some Watch Dogs game footage. Neither game looked like it was on a Next Gen console.

I agree for the most part. KillZone was the only game, but I am still questioning if there was really a person player or not.. but I'll assume that yes it was game play. However, what bugs me, is that when asked if KillZone was running on a PC or PS4, the developing studio decided to keep quiet. Ubisoft admitted that the the WatchDog demo of the PS4 press conference was running on a high end PC.

There was a person standing on stage playing Killzone and I think it was the case for WatchDog. In the case of Killzone, you can see him for a few short seconds in the press video but I think Sony really missed the opportunity in highlighting the fact that it was a real live demo. A spot light should have been on the persons demoing. For further proof, watch the Jimmy Fallon video of him and Anthony Anderson playing Killzone very poorly. Kyle Orland dedicated a article about it, insisting he wasn't at all bitter about it.

As for the PC or PS4 hardware comment. I would argue it doesn't really matter. It was proven to be real software and not a pre-rendered scene that is not able to be interacted with. That's what happens at hardware launches, all games are first done on PC's. At one of the events early 360 events games were running on Power Mac's (Edit: sorry it was Power Mac's not Mac Pros, dunno what the difference is). Does that make those games any less real?

I understand the hesitation to believe or the skepticism about the PS4 live demos, especially after the "these are real in-game videos" of the PS3 announce and later it was learned they were in fact just target renders and not actual game code. Like I said, Sony should have remembered that mistake and highlighted the fact that someone was playing live. Although that Jimmy Fallon video proves it is a real game that exists.

They showed SOME Killzone game footage but the majority of what they showed was the cinematic that lead up to the little bit of game play. But what confused me was the look of it. It looked less like a Killzone game and more like Mirror's Edge. I'm hoping what they showed us was just unfinished. They also showed us some Watch Dogs game footage. Neither game looked like it was on a Next Gen console.

The stuff after your character is knocked to the ground and kills the bad guy is all game play though, which was a significant amount.

But they didn't really show us much. It was mostly PR talk and pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes. They didn't even have a working PS4 there to show off these new features they were bragging about.

It's probably in the backroom all layed out and cyborgy looking as they finalize the form factor and how the hell they're gonna put all the guts into a pretty looking box of sorts.

Pretty sure they must still be playing with the system thermals. Taking all that hardware, even if it is low-powered, and putting it inside a tiny box while keeping the mass appeal and not burning your house down is not as easy as it sounds.

Unless they have community enablers akin to Steam Greenlight or Steam Workshop, color me uninterested.

Incidentally, Steambox better support these or there will be massive fan rage. The days of top-down content creation, publishing and distribution models are numbered. (Not that Steam is necessarily as good as it should be - half my Skyrim mods aren't on Steam Workshop and I have to manually obtain them from nexumods or other mod sites).

Sony does have a history of lying at least once about pre-rendered footage not being rendered in real-time (the infamous Killzone demo from early PS3 days, which they later admitted was not real time).

From what we saw so far from Sony's PS4 event, the only thing we know for sure was in real time was (ironically) the Killzone demo, since Fallon played it live the day after.

The upcoming generation seems more iPhone 4S than iPhone 5 (not sure if that makes sense given the actual products). However, I thought the same thing about the current generation and the true development turned out to be the platform-ification of the offered online services and marketplaces.

I think we will see a further split between (safe) big studio games that take truly advantage of the hardware and the (occasionally innovative) downloadable games that could potentially run on current hardware.

I can only hope that someone will use the added processing power to breathe life into new and innovative worlds, rather than giving us more and more realistic water, crew-cut space marines, and shiny cars.

The upcoming generation seems more iPhone 4S than iPhone 5 (not sure if that makes sense given the actual products). However, I thought the same thing about the current generation and the true development turned out to be the platform-ification of the offered online services and marketplaces.

I think we will see a further split between (safe) big studio games that take truly advantage of the hardware and the (occasionally innovative) downloadable games that could potentially run on current hardware.

I can only hope that someone will use the added processing power to breathe life into new and innovative worlds, rather than giving us more and more realistic water, crew-cut space marines, and shiny cars.

Ah, Sony... I used to be a die-hard fan. I've owned two Walkmans, a clock radio, two TV's, a receiver, two VCRs, and various other random products of theirs. Then they...

- Made the most proprietary, closed digital music player on the market (Seriously, how do you fail in this space pre-iPod with the Walkman brand??)

- Installed a root kit on PCs when you inserted their music CDs

But I was eventually willing to give them another chance and got a PS3 anyway. After which they...

- Stored our PlayStation account passwords in plaintext, which were grabbed by a massive data breach along with all kinds of customer information, resulting in several weeks of downtime while they fixed it.

- Removed the ability to install other OS's on existing PS3s via a firmware update - a feature which many made a purchase decision on and were left with a box they couldn't use for its intended purpose.

- Is considering banning used games with the PS4

No, I think Sony will never get another penny from me directly. They've already lost two $2k TV sales and a few other things. I see no reason to start buying their crap again now.

What's the word on system level game save/pause? I've had it with devs and their concept of "save scumming", and I'm somehow playing their game "wrong" if I like to save a lot. Be nice if one of the new system shoved that BS right up their nether regions by giving ultimate control to the customer.

Stop telling me how to play games, devs. I've been playing longer than some of you have been alive. Gamers are older, now, and sometimes we need to stop a game. Right. Freaking. Now. And having that make me replay 30 minutes of game I already successfully beat makes *you* the scum. Put in hardcore modes for the crazy people, if you must.

Stop with the "making the player live with the consequences of their choices". It. Is. A. Game. You are creating diversions. Entertainment. You are not curing cancer or bringing peace to all nations. Stop with your grand unified theories of gaming. Recognize players want to experiment and try silly things and basically have freedom. WhyTF do you think people can pour 100s of hours into an Elder Scrolls game?

I am kind of envy for the excitement some of the panelists share for the ps4. I watched the Sony's conference and immediately decided the ps4 is not for me (at least for now).

As a ps3 owner who doesn't have any intention of having two consoles hooked at mine television, Sony gave no reason at all to upgrade. My quite large PSN library will not work, all third party's games shown will also play on the ps3 (and they will keep releasing it until the PS4 installed base became big enough), and the new social features were not convincing enough. Finally, Sony showed two exclusives. They look good, but not as good as Crysis 3 on the PC. Why would I trade my whole PSN game collection for a couple of exclusives that look better but not much better than what the PS3 can produce?

I am pretty sure games on the PS4 and NeXtBox will look better than on current consoles. However, they will not be striking better. The biggest difference is that designers will be able to use better lighting and show surfaces other than sand, rock, metal, and rust at high fidelity. In my experience, it will be nice to watch someone playing a game, but one would hardly see much difference when playing by himself. As such, the PS3 and XBox 360 versions will hold nicely. Unlike Kyle, I believe the Wii U will be fine as its version will be even closer to the new systems.

The upcoming generation seems more iPhone 4S than iPhone 5 (not sure if that makes sense given the actual products). However, I thought the same thing about the current generation and the true development turned out to be the platform-ification of the offered online services and marketplaces.

I think we will see a further split between (safe) big studio games that take truly advantage of the hardware and the (occasionally innovative) downloadable games that could potentially run on current hardware.

I can only hope that someone will use the added processing power to breathe life into new and innovative worlds, rather than giving us more and more realistic water, crew-cut space marines, and shiny cars.

Blue skies please.

For what it's worth, I like your comment a lot, and think the comparison makes sense. I disagree with it, though: the x86 architecture is a radical departure from what Sony has done before, and the multi-threaded and GPU, along with the *radical* bump in RAM makes this, IMO at least, a revolutionary enhancement over the previous generation. The Cell processor was (is) an amazing piece of engineering, but the PS4 blows it away in raw power and potential.

In total agreement with you on wanting more innovative games. I'm not a serious gamer, but it seems like each generation there are fewer and fewer titles to choose from that aren't FPS. And I royally suck at console first person shooters, and gave up playing them years ago. I'm not a PC gamer, but if PS4 would support a mouse and keyboard gaming setup, I would actually consider jumping back into the FPS fray.

I'm also hopeful that the theoretically easier programming available by the x86 architecture gets more indie folks into the gaming culture to program neat stuff for the console.

Ah, Sony... I used to be a die-hard fan. I've owned two Walkmans, a clock radio, two TV's, a receiver, two VCRs, and various other random products of theirs. Then they...

- Made the most proprietary, closed digital music player on the market (Seriously, how do you fail in this space pre-iPod with the Walkman brand??)

- Installed a root kit on PCs when you inserted their music CDs

But I was eventually willing to give them another chance and got a PS3 anyway. After which they...

- Stored our PlayStation account passwords in plaintext, which were grabbed by a massive data breach along with all kinds of customer information, resulting in several weeks of downtime while they fixed it.

- Removed the ability to install other OS's on existing PS3s via a firmware update - a feature which many made a purchase decision on and were left with a box they couldn't use for its intended purpose.

- Is considering banning used games with the PS4

No, I think Sony will never get another penny from me directly. They've already lost two $2k TV sales and a few other things. I see no reason to start buying their crap again now.

Thanks for the useful contribution to this thread. Your insights on the PS4 are second to none, and the retreaded "I hate Sony" comments finally struck home for me. The first 50,000 times I previously read that exact comment just kind of rolled off my shoulders. But your version of saying the same thing as everyone else...man, it struck home for me. I finally see the light. I think it was knowing how many TV sales Sony has allegedly lost that did the trick.

Please keep posting the same thing in every other PS4 related post you can find so others can have the same epiphany. Everyone loves reading it. You're doing God's work, son.

What's the word on system level game save/pause? I've had it with devs and their concept of "save scumming", and I'm somehow playing their game "wrong" if I like to save a lot. Be nice if one of the new system shoved that BS right up their nether regions by giving ultimate control to the customer.

Stop telling me how to play games, devs. I've been playing longer than some of you have been alive. Gamers are older, now, and sometimes we need to stop a game. Right. Freaking. Now. And having that make me replay 30 minutes of game I already successfully beat makes *you* the scum. Put in hardcore modes for the crazy people, if you must.

Stop with the "making the player live with the consequences of their choices". It. Is. A. Game. You are creating diversions. Entertainment. You are not curing cancer or bringing peace to all nations. Stop with your grand unified theories of gaming. Recognize players want to experiment and try silly things and basically have freedom. WhyTF do you think people can pour 100s of hours into an Elder Scrolls game?

Sorry. Major pet peeve. Down mod me to oblivion.

Heh heh. Elder scrolls. Oblivion.

Agreed. The being able to save at specific save points really blows. Being able to save the current game state and continue it later on, similar to closing the lid on a DS or tapping the power button on a Vita, is freaking awesome!

That's one of the first things I want to try just to see it in action.

Towards the end you were talking about support for 4k televisions. There's an important distinction that you guys forgot to mention; the difference between the ability to display an image at 4k resolution and the ability to render 3d graphics at 4k resolution. Any respectable PC gamer keeps a close eye on this distinction because it's critical. Let's use the last generation consoles “support” for 1080p as an example. Any cheap crappy GPU can display an image at 1080p (1920x1080) resolution. But only a decent gamer targeted GPU will have the processing power needed to render 3d graphics at that resolution. When the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out, journalists everywhere kept claiming that it was light-years ahead of the PC but that was utter bullshit. It was honestly rather irritating. The graphics cards available for the PC in 2006 were the Radeon HD 2000 series nVidia's equivalents (Sorry I don't follow nVidia personally). The upper-end range of those cards were easily able to render 1080p graphics at completely playable frame-rates. If you check the specs for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 you'll find that neither of those systems can render 3d graphics at that resolution without seriously compromising either the polygon count and / or the texture detail. If you look up the render resolution of various PS3 and Xbox 360 games you'll find that by far most of them render the game at 720p (1280x720) and then upscale the image to 1080p. In a game system it's the GPU that matters most not the CPU. When the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out they were already 2 or more years behind the times as far as visual fidelity. Now I hear journalists claim that the PS4 is not as advanced relative to the PC as the PS3 was when it came out. Again that claim is utter bullshit! Statements like that display a complete lack of understanding of the hardware's capabilities. The specs for the PS4, as we know them right now, put it's GPU at about Radeon 7850 level. That's considerably more powerful relative to the PC than the PS3 or Xbox 360 were when they came out. The rumor mill has it that the Radeon HD 7000 series will still be AMD's current graphics chip generation around the time we expect the new consoles will ship. So for the first time in a very very long time, a console is about to be released that's genuinely close to doing what a PC can do. But back to the original subject of my post, the next generation of consoles will very likely be able to display an image at 4k resolution (3840x2160) because the GPU is technically capable of it. However even the Radeon 7970 has trouble rendering current gen games at that resolution at reasonable frame-rates so it's highly unlikely that most games will do so. There will probably be a few that do manage it just like there were a few PS3 games that render at native 1080p resolution. Stuff like Stardust HD and Wipeout HD IIRC. Casual games that don't need a high polygon count or texture detail so can render at max resolution while still being playable. However most of the games on the next gen consoles will likely render at 1080p and then upscale the image to 4k for people who have a 4k tv. HDMI 1.4 does support 4k resolutions so there's no reason the PS4 won't be able to do it. Just depends on whether or not Sony wants to support it. It seems highly likely to me that if the PS4 doesn't support 4k resolution out of the box, Sony will probably add it with a firmware update as 4k starts to take hold.

For what it's worth, I like your comment a lot, and think the comparison makes sense. I disagree with it, though: the x86 architecture is a radical departure from what Sony has done before, and the multi-threaded and GPU, along with the *radical* bump in RAM makes this, IMO at least, a revolutionary enhancement over the previous generation. The Cell processor was (is) an amazing piece of engineering, but the PS4 blows it away in raw power and potential.

In total agreement with you on wanting more innovative games. I'm not a serious gamer, but it seems like each generation there are fewer and fewer titles to choose from that aren't FPS. And I royally suck at console first person shooters, and gave up playing them years ago. I'm not a PC gamer, but if PS4 would support a mouse and keyboard gaming setup, I would actually consider jumping back into the FPS fray.

I'm also hopeful that the theoretically easier programming available by the x86 architecture gets more indie folks into the gaming culture to program neat stuff for the console.

Thanks for the reply. I think you bring up a genuinely good point. From a technical standpoint, I have no doubt that this is a radical improvement over the previous generation. What I am unsure of, and any input from someone knowledgeable about this kind of stuff would be appreciated, is how easy it will be for developers without 100 million dollar budgets to take advantage of these specs.

Maybe tools like the Unreal Engine and whatever else may be out there can help small/medium size developers compete with the large, well-funded teams. But are even these tools out of reach, financially, for some developers?

Some developers like Treasure, blessed with what I perceived to be god-like programming ability in the 16 bit era, have completely failed to create AAA games in this generation. Rather than their inability to innovate and adapt, I sometimes wonder if the cost of modern development (financial, including time and manpower) is what has really held them back.

Dear Ars, how much is Sony paying you for such a blatant advertisement expressed in the title and in the short summary of this article?

After reading that suggestive "...makes us want more" line I got a mental image of an ugly stripper teasing me and the urge to vomit so I couldn't even make myself to read the rest of the article.

Maybe this console is a radical improvement over previous generation but it is still nothing compared to an ordinary x86 PC for which everyone can develop games, not just those who can pay for expensive SDK and Playstation Network access for updates, DLC, etc.

Towards the end you were talking about support for 4k televisions. There's an important distinction that you guys forgot to mention; the difference between the ability to display an image at 4k resolution and the ability to render 3d graphics at 4k resolution. Any respectable PC gamer keeps a close eye on this distinction because it's critical. Let's use the last generation consoles “support” for 1080p as an example. Any cheap crappy GPU can display an image at 1080p (1920x1080)..."bunch of nonsense"

You are absolutely correct "the difference between the ability to display an image at 4k resolution and the ability to render 3d graphics at 4k resolution", well lets stop you right there. Because, unless your tv is 65+ inches or you sit more then 4 feet away from the screen YOU WONT BE ABLE TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1080p and anything 4k+. Considering the flat panel market is dominated by screens sub 50"(most people don't have living rooms that can take advantage of them regardless of their pricing). 4k much like the nonsense that are 3D TVs, seems like a solution to a problem almost no one has. As we have seen with DVD to bluray conversion numbers, consumers are not going to lay out extra cash to make an incrementally better viewing experience.

Dear Ars, how much is Sony paying you for such a blatant advertisement expressed in the title and in the short summary of this article?

After reading that suggestive "...makes us want more" line I got a mental image of an ugly stripper teasing me and the urge to vomit so I couldn't even make myself to read the rest of the article.

Maybe this console is a radical improvement over previous generation but it is still nothing compared to an ordinary x86 PC for which everyone can develop games, not just those who can pay for expensive SDK and Playstation Network access for updates, DLC, etc.

Yes, PSN access is so expensive that it's FREE! I'm so sick of PC gamers trolling console articles even though they don't actually know what they're talking about.

Agreed. The being able to save at specific save points really blows. Being able to save the current game state and continue it later on, similar to closing the lid on a DS or tapping the power button on a Vita, is freaking awesome!

That's one of the first things I want to try just to see it in action.

I'm actually enjoying dead space 3 coop, but, mother of god the autosave sucks. If you need to stop, you have to press forward, fighting battles to the next progress save indicator. And they put no mid mission saves in the side quests. And once a save point fires, that's it. If you back track to do something and return, you have to find the next one. Or you get to a bench, spend ten minutes crafting new weapons, get killed in the next battle, and the checkpoint is before you did all the work at the bench. You can't manually save after the benchwork other that save and quit and reload. It's utterly asinine.

And now there's a major glitch where you can lose your little scavenger bots and it seems tied to the autosave, so its blown up in their faces. Dumbasses.

The first two had save stations you could go to at any time and use over and over. They're actually making me pine or the days of save points.

To answer your question directly, First, you need to decide which platform(s) you want to develop for. Next, you need to decide if you want to develop a disc-based game, or a game to be sold via the platforms' virtual marketplace (Keep in mind that Unity does not currently support the Xbox Live Arcade). Whichever you choose, you need to go to the platform's development page and register as a developer, giving them the information pertaining to your previous decisions. Before you are accepted, you will need to provide a demo (usually a PC I suppose Mac demo) of the game you want to have on the console. If you are accepted, you will then be required to pay for the platoforms dev kit (including SDK and dev box). Once all that is taken care of, you will need to contact Unity and obtain a license for the platform(s) you wish to develop for. For disc-based games, a license is $80,000 per title (per platform), and for PSN Store, the license is $40,000 per title.

Compare those prices to the price of licensing any recent game engine and costs of publishing your game on Steam and you will see how much of a nonsense is to even think about developing games for consoles, especially now that they are essentially an x86 PC box.

Compare those prices to the price of licensing any recent game engine and costs of publishing your game on Steam and you will see how much of a nonsense is to even think about developing games for consoles, especially now that they are essentially an x86 PC box.

Right. They are still much more profitable than to see their games going for free in The Pirate Bay. I still have to decide who are worse: the xbots denying the massive failure rate due to RRODs or the PC trolls denying PC gaming piracy.

Cesar Torres / Cesar is the Social Editor at Ars Technica. His areas of expertise are in online communities, human-computer interaction, usability, and e-reader technology. Cesar lives in New York City.